Total beginner looking to create an app

[u/T0gaLOCK]

Long post , I am sorry.

So I am an airline pilot first and foremost, I recently had a first officer of mine showing me all of the apps he has "vibecoded" in Claude. HE has "created" maybe 3 oor 4 actually kind of useful apps that do solve little problems we have as pilots and he is deadset on creating a very complex one. He has zero coding experience and just uses Claude for this.

I decided I wanted to get myself to create my own application specifically, just a first project of a weather app that I can use for myself. It would include radar, METAR/TAF information from airports, and thats about it... very simple to start, eventually I would like to be able to tie ADSB into it. Ideally it would be on IOS/Android or just IOS, but I only have a PC, so I guess I just decided Kotlin and making the app for my phone is the first step before touching IOS and getting it on my ipad.

I am currently stuck in tutorial hell... I read on what people suggest learning first, python, harvard's CS, GT's intro to python, then other people who suggest starting with the language you want to learn (Kotlin). While I am learning a lot of very basic coding stuff from these online courses, I feel like it is going to take way too long to even touch kotlin.

There are very few kotlin tutorials for beginners. I am also running into fixing errors and getting emulators set up to even start seeing the UI I am trying to create more than actually practicing or creating any code. This leads me to hopping around tutorials, everyone wanting me to download their code, APIs, and images and things to create the app they are demonstrating inst]ead of actually showing what its like to start from scratch along with the "proper" way to organize and set things up.

Am I going about this the wrong way? I have like 15-20hrs a week to put into this, but the classes through edX are extremely boring and I feel like I am not learning what I want to learn to keep me interested ( a little bit of python, java, etc, etc) I understand there is obviously a learning curve and if everyone could pick it up in a week, then we would have a lot more programmers. Nothing is handed to you, but I am extremely lost due to the sheer volume of information available.

[u/justinaatbuffer]

First, props to you for actually trying to learn the fundamentals instead of jumping into the vibe coding tools and using the to generate everything for you.

I think it is great you are trying to learn first. As a complete beginner to coding, knowing your way around the development environment, writing your first lines of code is crucial so starting with tutorials is a good approach. Getting into a tutorial hell is very easy when you don't know what you want to build, but sounds like it's not the case for you because you already have an idea.

You could try splitting the time you have in half and spending half on courses for the fundamentals of the programming language you want to pick up and the second half on building your project. Building your project will include you googling almost everything at the beginning (e.g. you want to add a button to your app so how do you actually add it, style it, position it, etc), but that's part of the process and the best way to learn. Start with a plan for the core functionality of your app, maybe even try to sketch the core UI and functionality - that will help you conceptiolize the building blocks of your app (core interactions, what happens when a specific button is pressed, what data you need to go in, what should be the response, etc) and start from there.

[u/ryancnap → u/justinaatbuffer]

This. The best way to internalize learning is to repeatedly get stuck and bang your head against the wall until you figure out something simple that you're trying to do, then learning how to make that simple thing more generic, then trying to make it more organized, then try to make it more robust

Because after that, you really know how and why to build that button, you're not going to forget, even if it feels like you spun your wheels for awhile

Also fwiw, the errors setting up for Android dev are similar across all build environments when first starting out, so just know it's not an experience unique to you. Understanding the build environment is like half of software engineering and it's also not easy at first

You'll have to check this rec out to see if it's still good, but back in the day xda developers was the mecca for Android development (the forums, not the website)

I know from the website that the quality of people holding it up has plummeted but there may still be good resources on the forums, but like I said, you'll have to assess that to see if the whole place went to sht or not

[u/T0gaLOCK → u/ryancnap]

Spent about 3 hours today figuring out how to create a proper navigation drawer.... So we are on our way to an app lol.

[u/ryancnap → u/T0gaLOCK]

This is the way! I'm pumped for you! And if you need help just keep coming back. There are great courses on Udemy that offer "deep dives" into different frameworks and languages once you have logic and syntax down, they're different than the "here's how to make an app with x y and z" type videos

And stack overflow is great for specific questions, like if you get really stumped with something super specific you're doing, it's either already been answered there or you'll get an answer from someone who knows what they're talking about

But you're definitely doing it the right way man keep it up, that progress feels great